Wednesday 15 March 2023

How to handle StaleElementException in Selenium?

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How to handle staleelementexeception

StaleElementException is a common exception that can occur in web automation testing when an element on the web page has changed or become stale since it was first located by the WebDriver. This can happen when the page is refreshed or updated dynamically.

To handle StaleElementException in your automation tests, you can use one of the following methods:

Retry mechanism: You can use a retry mechanism to refresh the page and retry the action that caused the exception. This can be done by wrapping the action in a try-catch block and retrying it a certain number of times until it succeeds.

int retryCount = 0;
while (retryCount < 3) {
    try {
        WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("elementId"));
        element.click();
        break;
    } catch (StaleElementException e) {
        driver.navigate().refresh();
        retryCount++;
    }
}

In this example, the code attempts to click on an element with the ID "elementId". If a StaleElementException is caught, the page is refreshed and the action is retried. The retry mechanism is limited to three attempts in this example, but you can adjust the retry count to fit your needs.

PageFactory: You can use PageFactory to automatically handle StaleElementException for you. This can be done by annotating the WebElement with @CacheLookup and initializing the PageFactory with the org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory class.

public class MyPage {
    @CacheLookup
    @FindBy(id = "elementId")
    private WebElement element;
    
    public MyPage(WebDriver driver) {
        PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);
    }
    
    public void clickElement() {
        element.click();
    }
}

In this example, the @CacheLookup annotation tells PageFactory to cache the element when it is first located, and to use the cached element instead of locating it again when it is accessed later. This can prevent StaleElementException from occurring. The PageFactory.initElements method initializes the page object and its elements. You can then use the clickElement method to click on the cached element without worrying about StaleElementException.

Explicit Wait: You can use an explicit wait to wait for the element to become stale and then re-locate it. This can be done using the ExpectedConditions.stalenessOf method.

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("elementId"));
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.stalenessOf(element));
element = driver.findElement(By.id("elementId"));
element.click();

In this example, the code first locates the element with the ID "elementId". The WebDriverWait object waits for up to 10 seconds for the element to become stale, and then re-locates the element before clicking on it. This can prevent StaleElementException from occurring.

Overall, the best way to handle StaleElementException depends on the specific situation and your testing needs. It's important to consider the performance impact of each approach and choose the one that works best for your application.

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